“The Ruins”

Ryan Phillippe shows some chops in â€œStop-Loss,â€ an insightful drama co-starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a volatile Iraq war vet who wants to return to the front, but canâ€™t due to his instability.

In her first film since â€œBoys Donâ€™t Cry,â€ director Kimberly Peirce builds her story around the militaryâ€™s stop-loss policy, which permits sending soldiers back to battle after theyâ€™ve completed their tour of duty and returned home.

A hero abroad and in his small Texas community, Phillippeâ€™s patriotic character balks at returning to Iraq, finding support or antipathy from friends and former comrades.

Five tourists are trapped atop an old Mayan temple surrounded by creepy, creeping vines and hostile villagers in â€œThe Ruins: Unrated Edition.â€

Jena Malone, Shawn Ashmore and a handful of unfamiliar faces carry in this gruesome, downbeat, energy-sapping adaptation of the popular Scott Smith novel.

Oh, the inhumanity.

Extras: Alternate endings, one of which is OK; making-of short; effects short with close-ups of shattered, blood-soaked prosthetic legs used in a shut-your-eyes sequence too horrific to describe; filmmakersâ€™ commentary; deleted scenes; more.

Truth still out there

â€œX-Filesâ€ creator Chris Carter selected eight episodes â€” including the seriesâ€™ pilot and the droll, black-and-white â€œThe Post-Modern Prometheusâ€ â€” and explains his rationale for each in â€œThe X-Files: Revelations,â€ a teaser to the â€œX-Filesâ€ movie due out July 25.

The shows are all quality, but if, like me, you saw them the first time around and/or in repeats, you might have a difficult time sitting through them again.

Unlikely; not as long as there are teenagers who lap up this sort of thing (â€œScary Movieâ€ ad infinitum).

New and unimproved, â€œThe Superhero Movieâ€ is the latest in the series: a â€œSpider-Manâ€ takeoff about a guy (Drake Bell) who gets bitten by a dragonfly and acquires all of its powers but the abilities to fly and crack jokes.

Other hits, such as â€œX-Men,â€ also get satirized, but except for the trailer and one or two OK gags that slip through the mean-spirited thicket of plot re-creations and cultural references â€” Barry Bonds, superhero! â€” the whole thingâ€™s pretty dismal.

A young man (Cory Monteith) blinded at work gets a wolfâ€™s yellow eyes in an experimental surgery done by transplant specialist Justine Bateman in â€œHybrid.â€

Suddenly he can sniff danger, see in the dark and run like the wind with his shirt off.

He also overreacts to threats, and imagines the same scenes of wolves romping and fighting over and over again. It drives him nuts â€” except when heâ€™s tearing into raw buffalo meat served in a restaurant where itâ€™s evidently a blue-plate special.

The dark fable involves American Indian mysticism, nature preservation and the usual nastiness from the usual government agents.

Bloodâ€™s spilled; not enough.

The endingâ€™s loony as a tail-chasing puppy.

Decent acting given the low budget, but more werewolf wannabe than the real thing (so to speak). Extras: None.

Each set contains a tomb full of extras and a ticket to the new release. Karloffâ€™s â€œMummyâ€ has the most atmosphere, Fraserâ€™s have the most effects and action â€” and the least of everything else.

Also on DVD

â€œBatman: Gotham Knightâ€: Feature-length animated film uses six connected stories to show Bruce Wayneâ€™s evolution into the Dark Knight; on two discs.

â€œBlood Brothersâ€: Seeking a better life, three brothers come to Shanghai in the 1930s, are hired by the mob and get in trouble over a woman; subtitled.

â€œChop Shopâ€: Ramin Bahraniâ€™s (â€œMan Push Cartâ€) drama follows a 12-year-old New York orphan who tries to scavenge a life for himself and his sister by working in an auto-body repair shop.

â€œ305â€: Hit YouTube â€œ300â€ spoof, now feature length, about five cowards who seek redemption after causing the demise of the 300 Spartans.

I can tolerate gruesomeness as well as the next guy, “guy” being the operative word since, with the exception of a colleague’s wife who revels in the “Saw” movies, appreciating gruesomeness is mostly a male thing.

Maybe it goes back to playing scientist as kids, and being fascinated by chicken innards.

I know: Too much information.

And that’s my criticism of the blood-and-guts overkill in “The Ruins,” a trash-and-thrash film that’s out on DVD July 8: Too much too much.

Forget about the creepiness. The tale of tourists stranded on atop an old temple mound surrounded by thick vines and vicious villagers features an intentional breaking-legs scene that crashes the Gore-O-Meter. Which isn’t easy.

You get close-ups of the action, you hear enhanced smashing-and-cracking sounds, and you get close-ups of the awful aftermath.

Don’t eat enchiladas beforehand.

As if that’s not enough, you get in-your-face looks at the icked-up artificial limbs in the extras.